Show Me
by RaceTheWind10
Summary: Cara/Kahlan LJ prompt was "Show me what the Mord'Sith taught you"  This was *supposed* to be smut and ended up being very dark. Deals with some disturbing themes.


**Title: The Right Thing**

**Rating: R**

**Pairing: Cara/Kahlan **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Summary: S.O.S. fic for mandala Prompt: "Show me what the Mord'Sith taught you"**

**A/N: ANGST and violence alert this fic deals with some dark themes.**

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With a savage twist, Cara finishes off the bindings securing her prisoner. The man cowers and the Mord'Sith curls her lip at the stench of fear that surrounds him. Despite being much larger than the blonde woman, she has no trouble dropping him to his knees and he stays there, almost trembling. His clothes are plain and soiled from his attempted escape and bruises are already blooming on his dirty skin where Cara has acquainted him with her Ageils.

It is not the woman in red leather that he flinches from however.

A blur of white at the corner of Cara's vision resolves itself into the Mother Confessor, who no longer looks entirely human. Kahlan's normally open countenance is as empty and hard as stone, and though her eyes are still clear, the sky blue irises visible, Cara understands that the taller woman is struggling to hold back her rage.

Only once has Cara seen the Confessor completely loose control, and then her hatred had been directed at the Mord'Sith who had taken her sister's life – at Cara.

The man in front of them is just that – a man – nothing less or more. He has no power, no magic and no special abilities. But he is a terrible reminder that not all evil comes backed by powerful magic and wearing velvet robes.

A muscle in Kahlan's jaw works as she stares at the prisoner and Cara merely waits. It didn't take long to catch him once they found his trail. Even now, Zedd and Richard were escorting this monster's latest would be victims home. They were lucky.

Many other little girls had not been.

Almost against her will Cara glances to her right, to the neat plots so lovingly tended where under verdant grass, the man's victims rested forever, never again to be united with their families.

The sight makes the seething anger in the blonde woman's gut burn hotter. If Kahlan unleashes her magic on the man now whimpering in front of them, the Mord'Sith isn't going to do a thing to stop her.

For a long moment, however, the Mother Confessor does nothing. The three of them stand locked in silent tableau in the lush meadow behind the man's shack. It was the last sight many of his victims likely saw.

Cara clenches her hand on her Ageil.

"Show me," Kahlan says. It is sudden and unexpected and Cara frowns. She is about to ask her companion what she means when Kahlan turns to her, a terrible, fey expression on her face.

There is a part of Cara that thinks Kahlan has never looked more beautiful.

"Show me what the Mord'Sith taught you," Kahlan continues as if hearing Cara's thoughts. "He doesn't deserve Confession. He should be broken. He should _suffer_." The last is nearly hissed.

Cara regards the woman in front of her. A part of her wants to give in to that request – to show Kahlan what it is to break another being to your will with nothing but unending pain – to let the Confessor vent the rage and grief that Cara understands is swirling in Kahlan's blood like a maelstrom.

Once she would not even have hesitated.

But Cara is not who she once was.

"No."

Something dangerous flickers in Kahlan's eyes, but the leather clad woman does not back down.

"Cara,"

"No…This is a burden you should not have to carry." Cara responds quietly.

Kahlan blinks, some of the hardness bleeding from her face for a moment.

"Cara?"

"_I_ will make sure he pays."

And she does.

The man's screams echo across the beautiful valley, reverberating off the walls of his former home where so many innocent lives were lost until his throat is too raw to scream and his heart fails, and there is silence.

The two women drag the corpse into the house and Cara lights a torch. It is Kahlan who smashes the oil lamp on the floor and throws the burning wood down however, and they stand side by side as the flames climb into the clear blue sky.

They rejoin Zedd and Richard and receive the tearful thanks of grateful families, but Cara keeps her focus on Kahlan. That night, when the Mord'Sith's ears catch the muffled sounds that she now recognizes as the Confessor attempting not to cry, she slips from her bed roll and lays down behind the other woman. Cara wraps her arms around Kahlan and when the taller woman turns and buries her head against Cara's shoulder and lets her tears fall, the blonde merely holds her tightly and strokes her hair, knowing that no words can erase the horror of what they had seen that day.

There is no part of Cara that regrets sparing Kahlan the weight of another life on her soul however, and though she wishes she could take away the other woman's grief, for once, Cara knows she did the _right_ thing.

Fin.


End file.
